


overunderwhelmed

by constellatory



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Genocide, No Mercy Route, everyone has a bad time, genocide au, genocide spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-02 05:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5236865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constellatory/pseuds/constellatory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All you wanted was to go home. All the both of you wanted was to go home. You didn't know any other way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	overunderwhelmed

>  HUMAN!

You turn, a breeze stirring your hair as dust blows gently against the bare backs of your legs.

> IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU. I’VE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE! I CAN’T GET IN CONTACT WITH ANY OF MY OTHER FRIENDS, SO I THOUGHT I’D COME FIND YOU.

You say nothing. The knife in your hand is dry. Dry like your palms and eyes.

> HAVE YOU SEEN SANS? THAT LAZY BROTHER OF MINE ISN’T DOING HIS JOBS AGAIN! I’VE BEEN BY EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS GUARD STATIONS AND THEY’RE ALL EMPTY! IN FACT… EVERYWHERE IS PRETTY EMPTY. IT’S KIND OF WEIRD.

You keep saying nothing.

> HUMAN? WHAT’S WRONG? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?

Papyrus is starting to look concerned. He starts to move toward you, and then he looks past you. He stops mid-stride at what he sees there, frozen in place, and you simply stand there and watch him with your head tilted back and your hands loose at your side. The hilt of your knife feels safe and familiar. You know it well.

> I... I HADN’T BEEN ABLE TO REACH SANS AT ALL. I THOUGHT HE WAS JUST BUSY, BUT...

His brother had been busy. Busy stalking you. You’d been able to smell him, the snap crackle sting of ozone in the air, soft floating tendrils of blue electricity haunting your peripheral vision as you tromped your way through the endless steam of the Hotlands. Whenever you turned to look, there was never anything there, even when you found a monster and proceeded to kill it like you killed everything.

You thought you had to. That’s what you did with monsters, right? They tried to hurt you, so you hurt them back. You didn't kill all of them. You were only doing what you needed to in order to survive. Toriel showed you how to be strong, and you took her lesson to heart. You fought. You persevered. You wouldn’t give in. You decided you’d stay determined. The more you fought, the easier it became. So you just kept going. There wasn’t any other way it could be. At least, if there was, you didn’t really know it.

Except for Papyrus. He’d spent the whole fight chattering at you so much and using his silly blue attacks that in the end, you hadn’t needed to kill him at all. The fight had just ... ended. You simply walked away, and he’d gotten the idea that you were friends now. You didn’t really mind it; you were lonely down here, surrounded by monsters that wanted to hurt you when all you wanted to do was go home, and when he gave you his number, you kept calling him all along your journey.

He’d give you weird little snippets of commentary for each new place you encountered. While you were busy trying to avoid death, desperately determined to stay alive, Papyrus would chirp in your ear about flowers and pasta and the webbed fingers of spiders even as he began to wonder aloud why Undyne wasn’t returning his calls.

It was comforting. It had been nice to have just one friend. 

Looking at him now, you wonder if you hadn’t maybe done this all wrong.

He’s got gloved hands wrapped around his skull, his lanky form hunched as he stares at the pile of dust behind you. You wonder if he’s realized who it belongs to.

> HUMAN... WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING? WHERE IS EVERYONE?

You’re not sure how to answer him. You like Papyrus. He was your only friend.

> HUMAN!!!

One of his eyes does something strange. You suddenly realize why he and Sans are brothers. You take one step to the right, and Papyrus steps up beside you so he can fall to his knees, peeling off his gloves and running shaky hands through the dust that was his brother. He’s silent and shaking a little, and you can practically read the indecision off his frame like lines off a book.

> ... WAS THIS ... SANS?

You nod.

> I... I DON’T UNDERSTAND. YOU KILLED MY BROTHER?

You nod.

> WHY?

You had to.

> YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO!

He wouldn’t let you pass, otherwise.

> WHY NOT? YOU WERE JUST GOING HOME!

He was angry at you.

> WHY WOULD HE BE MAD AT YOU? YOU WERE MY FRIEND!

You killed a lot of monsters.

> BUT... BUT WHY WOULD MY COOL FRIEND... KILL SO MANY OF MY OTHER COOL FRIENDS? ARE THEY REALLY ALL GONE?

You nod.

> HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?!! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS, HUMAN?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE COOL!!!

You were determined to go home. You thought this was the only way.

Papyrus rises. His brother’s dust clings to his bones, turning his metacarpals and long, lingering digits a dim, dusty gray. The rest blows away in a breeze, dissolving, disappearing. He turns away from you and strides down the gold-lit hallway. It’s warm in here, pleasantly so, and peaceful. The birds keep chirping. It’s the only sound aside from Papyrus’s heavy footsteps. You watch him stride, looking at your friend’s back, wondering what you did wrong. Wondering what you should have done instead.

Your knife is heavy and the hilt rough in your hand.

He turns to face you. Something is wrong with his eyes. His left one is lit up a strange, bright, candy orange you’ve never seen before, and somehow manages to leave behind a smeary light trail as his head moves even in this brightly lit corridor. But his right eye is a familiar blue that you’ve seen before.

Your mouth turns down in a small frown as you raise your knife. Papyrus starts to laugh. It isn’t the fun sound you’re used to. It’s high and thin, and wetness is pouring down the plates of his skull, following the lines of his big goofy teeth to curl past his jaw and drip onto his shirt. You didn’t know skeletons could cry. You wonder, in passing, where the tears are coming from. He doesn’t have tear ducts.

> YOU WANTED TO GO HOME....? WELL, NOW NO ONE CAN GO HOME! BECAUSE HOME WON’T BE HOME WITHOUT SANS! NO ONE GETS TO GO HOME ANYMORE!

Somewhere, distantly, [you think you can hear music](https://soundcloud.com/chrystalchameleon/undertale-megalovania-piano-arrangement). He’s laughing and laughing and it's not laughing, you think, but you have no time to think as he turns your soul blue. 

**Author's Note:**

> This work was heavily inspired by the amazing voice acting featured [here](https://soundcloud.com/anime_sonicmega/genocide-papyrus). The orange eye was inspired by the artwork on that track, which can be found [here](http://tacosaurusrex.deviantart.com/art/An-AU-in-which-565368386) and credited to TacosaurusRex. The music at the very end can be credited to [ChrystalChameleon](https://soundcloud.com/chrystalchameleon) on SoundCloud, linked in the body with permission.
> 
> I'd like to make a graphical version of this eventually, with text boxes. We'll see.


End file.
